i am hoping someone can help me. Since Tuesday I have had a sore throat which is getting a little better. I have thick postnasal drip and white spots on the throat. I gargled this afternoon and a few spots fell off...what is this, does it sound like strep? thanks in advance!

YES!!! It does sound like strep to me. Those are my exact symptoms every time I have ever been diagnosed with strep. The white spots in the throat are always a dead give away for me! You should set up a doctor appointment ASAP. Strep should be treated right away as it can lead to more serious problems. Good luck!

white spots in the throat are not the same as "tonsil stones", and do not always signify strep throat. in fact, only a small percentage of sore throats are actually caused by strep - the rest are caused by viruses. it sounds to me like you just had a virus. many times i've had a really bad sore throat with white spots and thought "oh, this must be strep!" and then to my surprise the strep tests come back negative.

so, white spots in the throat are not always signs of strep, but it never hurts to go get a culture done at your doctor's office to be sure if you're not feeling better. but since you ARE feeling better, it's probably not strep, and it's good that you didn't have to take any antibiotics because they wouldn't have helped a virus and taking them when unnecessary just leads to antibiotic resistance (and you don't want to develop that!!).

I went to the doc today because now the voice is gone and hubby said it would not hurt to get checked. The strep culture was negative, so she said just keep doing what ia m doing, salt water gargle, etc...lots of fluids....so that is that. Thank you for all of the advice!

I would suggest strep also my daughter had it 2 times this year. Even if you have strep it can go away thinking your cured,But in fact even though you feel better you can still pass it to some one. And even get scarlet fever also. My daughter got scarlet fever from not being treated in time. Learn from my mistakes. You don't want scarlet fever or even worse rhheumatic fever.
Good Luck